Festival of Scholars was a great experience as a presenter; I got to talk to people about projects I am really excited about and get their feedback on the variety of posters I presented. However, maybe even more interesting was talking to other students about their projects and theses that they are excited about. This was also informative looking forward to my senior capstone two years from now.
First, I talked to Jacob Weiss on his poster on genetically modified Bt cotton in India. Though conducting extensive research and even traveling to India to talk with cotton farmers, he was able to give an overview of the situation and problems presented by Bt cotton. He found the farmers loved growing it and were held back by public perceptions and backlash from the genetic modification. Furthermore, he couldn’t find any evidence of the claims of farmer suicides related to the crop. It was great talking to Jacob about this because of my interest and relation to my concentration. I could potentially do something similar for my capstone. I especially found his methods interesting as I have wondered about the methods possible for undergrad research into AgTech. Jacob took an anthropological approach by talking with the farmers themselves. This is both impressive and sounds like it would have been a fascinating experience. Yet, this also showed me how my own interests are similar but different. My capstone will likely be more technological and locally focused. However, this is still an approach I will consider moving forward with my concentration.
Another fascinating capstone was Jhana Valentine’s poster on B Corporations. She provided a comprehensive look into the assessment system and how does and does not promote sustainability values. She interviewed several B Corps in the Portland area to see what they got out of the program and found that many are use the assessment for the exclusive community formed by B Corps. While maybe not as immediately relevant to my concentration, this relates strongly with my independent study on sustainability assessment systems in higher education, and it also fits in with my interests in entrepreneurship as outlined in my concentration. While Jhana provides a slightly different approach to her methodology, it is similar in that it involves a lot of research and talking to relevant parties. In this way, it reminds me of our work with Willipa Bay as well. This is important when considering what I want to research, but I definitely want to consider other methods as well.